Crude gains lessen on US stock build

LONDON (ICIS)--Crude oil prices fell by around 45 cents/bbl on Wednesday, eroding earlier gains, when this week’s US stock figures showed a small build on crude rather than the expected draw.

Gasoline stocks also showed a build rather than the forecast draw, whereas distillates showed an unexpected draw.

September NYMEX light sweet crude futuresfell from around $103.55/bbl before the figures from the Energy Information Administration(EIA) were published to around $103.10/bbl, a gain of 2 cents/bbl from Tuesday’s close, but above the earlier low of $102.93/bbl.

However, they then regained a little ground and at 14:35 GMT, September NYMEX crude was trading around $103.20/bbl, up 12 cents/bbl from Tuesday’s close of $103.08/bbl, but well down from the earlier high of $103.83/bbl.

On ICE Futures, September Brent also lost ground, falling from around $106.15/bbl before the figures were published to around $105.90/bbl. At 14:35 GMT, September Brent was trading around $106.00/bbl, down 91 cents/bbl from Tuesday’s close of $106.91/bbl, but again above the earlier low of $105.73/bbl.

Analysts’ predictions for this week’s US stock figures were that they would show a draw on crude stocks of about 2.3m bbl, a build on distillate of around 300,000 bbl and a draw on gasoline of around 800,000 bbl.